Winemaker Notes
The nose immediately impressed for the complexity of the combination between flowers and red berries, in the mouth it opens in spicy and floral notes and tannins develop with softness and harmony , coming together in a never -ending finish. A wine of extreme elegance and brightness
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Earthy aromas of blue flower, rose, underbrush and leather mingle together on this gorgeous, fragrant red. All about finesse and flavor, the medium-bodied palate is absolutely delicious, featuring juicy morello cherry, crushed raspberry, baking spice, star anise and the barest hint of game. It's radiant and beautifully balanced thanks to taut, polished tannins and bright acidity. It's already showing incredibly well but hold for even more complexity. Drink 2022–2036.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Le Potazzine always delivers a smooth and silky style with extreme elegance and the lifted cool-climate fruit that you get from this high-altitude growing site. The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino is taut and firm with cherry fruit, dried raspberry, tilled earth, spice and blue flower. The wine sees an extended fermentation of 40 days and ages in botte grande for 42 months. This is a well-balanced wine that is slightly thinner, with one notch lower intensity in this vintage compared to past editions. You get a light, sharp and streamlined style. I prefer the 2015 vintage slightly to this wine, but I'm suggesting a longer drinking window here.
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Wine Spectator
Black cherry, black currant and plum flavors are front and center in this supple red, with accents of earth, iron, leather and tobacco chiming in as the tannins flex their muscles on the long finish. Everything is there, this just needs to integrate. Best from 2025 through 2048.
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Decanter
Owned by Gigliola Giannetti and her daughters Viola and Sofia, the estate is comprised of two vineyards: near the town of Montalcino, Le Prata rises over 500 metres, while the slightly lower site of La Torre is located in Sant’Angelo in Colle. Le Potazzine’s Brunello takes time to come into focus, but when it does a cascade of brambly forest berries, anise, cinnamon, tea and incense waft from the glass. There's a plushness to the fruit and a crisp youthfulness. Chalky tannins cling elegantly to the edges.
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James Suckling
This is a cooler style of Brunello with blueberries, black cherries, crushed stones and lavender. It’s full-bodied with firm, tight tannins. Yet, it opens at the end to pinpointed fruit and tannins. Give this time to soften. Try after 2024.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
Famous for its bold, layered and long-lived red, Brunello di Montalcino, the town of Montalcino is about 70 miles south of Florence, and has a warmer and drier climate than that of its neighbor, Chianti. The Sangiovese grape is king here, as it is in Chianti, but Montalcino has its own clone called Brunello.
The Brunello vineyards of Montalcino blanket the rolling hills surrounding the village and fan out at various elevations, creating the potential for Brunello wines expressing different styles. From the valleys, where deeper deposits of clay are found, come wines typically bolder, more concentrated and rich in opulent black fruit. The hillside vineyards produce wines more concentrated in red fruits and floral aromas; these sites reach up to over 1,600 feet and have shallow soils of rocks and shale.
Brunello di Montalcino by law must be aged a minimum of four years, including two years in barrel before realease and once released, typically needs more time in bottle for its drinking potential to be fully reached. The good news is that Montalcino makes a “baby brother” version. The wines called Rosso di Montalcino are often made from younger vines, aged for about a year before release, offer extraordinary values and are ready to drink young.